Dash Rendar

Overview

Dash Rendar is an obscure Star Wars character that only appears in the "Star Wars Expanded Universe." He is most similar to Han Solo, in that he is a Corellian Smuggler who also works as a gun-for-hire for the Rebel Alliance. His similarity to Han Solo goes so far as also attending and being expelled from an Imperial Academy, flying a ship (similar to the Millennium Falcon) named the Outrider, and his being assisted by a co-pilot sidekick (a robot named Leebo).

Role In Shadows of the Empire

Although he wasn't a character in any of the Star Wars movies, Dash played a major role in the "rebellion" and was present at several major events and encounters many characters from the movies.

For example, the game starts off with Dash flying a snowspeeder in the famous Battle of Hoth. After escaping Hoth through an asteroid field, he travels to Ord Mantell, a junkyard where he fights the bounty hunter robot IG-88 and learns the location of Boba Fett. Dash then tries to take down Fett, but has to settle with damaging Fett's ship.

Next, he is asked by Princess Leia to protect Luke Skywalker, so Dash goes to Tatooine. There, he has to fly a swoop (the chopper of equivalent of the speeder bike) in a race against other dudes on swoops, with the goal being Luke.

His next objective is to "infiltrate" an Imperial freighter ship, but "infiltrate" in Dash's case means busting through guns blazing, destroying a cargo droid, and stealing a super computer. Meanwhile, Leia has been taken captive by Prince Xizor, so it's up to Dash to "infiltrate" (there's that word again) Xizor's Palace and save the princess. He chooses to do this by entering a sewer, a sewer which just happens to be the only sewer on Coruscant inhabited by a water monster (known as the Giant Dionga). Dash makes it into Xizor's skyhook, kicks some robot ass, only to learn that Xizor ran off to his sanctuary of a skyhook.

The last level of the game when Dash flies his ship into to the skyhook to blow it up, Lando Calrissian style. On the easiest three difficulties in the game, the explosion from the skyhook's destruction envelops Dash's ship, and then a cutscene is shown with Luke Skywalker hinting at Dash's supposed "death." If the game is beaten on the hardest difficulty, there is an additional scene with Dash flying through hyperspace saying, "It's better to be remembered as a martyr and still be alive."

Trivia

The Outrider (Dash's Ship) can been seen in the special edition of Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope, when Luke and Ben are speeding to Mos Eisley cantina.